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Understanding Reality Television Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn, Editors. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Scholarly analyses of reality television, like the entertainment genre itself, have become a prolific industry of late. Given the plethora of contemporary writing on the subject, it is refreshing to find a text that is timely and remarkable in its scope and depth. Understanding Reality Television contains 13 international perspectives on the reality TV phenomenon and reflects a diversity of theoretical viewpoints and methodological approaches.
The first two chapters offer historical examinations. Bradley Clissold traces the origins of reality television to Alien Funt's Candid Microphone and Candid Camera shows and contextualizes these precursors of Schadenfreude television within the context of Cold War America. Jennifer Gillan traces the genesis and development of the reality star sitcom from Ozzie Nelson to Ozzy Osbourne. Both Clissold and Gillan dent the popular misperception of reality TV as an innovative...